imadeandfoundthisstuff

[imadeandfoundthisstuff]

It's so nice to have a chance to give back! Being handy with an exacto knife and glue gun can really pay off sometimes, such as when a woman in her eighties has a thing for Chuck Norris, and the staff of the nursing home where she lives (and where your boyfriend works) wants to gift her a life-size cardboard cutout of him, but the only one they can find is brandishing two uzis. 

That’s when it’s prop guy to the rescue!

[imadeandfoundthisstuff]

Horse Dice for Snow White

I guess most of the prop work I do would be considered found art, but this is the most extreme example. These are fuzzy dice that I hung on a horse that was to be rode by a heroic prince in a wackier take on Snow White. It just seemed like a funny idea, and as I drove away from Pep Boys after buying them I was debating where to put them. Around the tail of course wouldn’t make any sense, so that left one of the horse’s ears, or its gaping mouth. When I got back to the theater and was experimenting with both options, the scenic artist helped me decide on the mouth. The ear was goofy enough, but it almost made too much sense, as a horse’s ears are, if you think about, somewhat equivalent to a car’s side mirrors, which if hung there would then be evocative of the rearview mirror, so, in a way, the widely accepted everyday logic of novelty dice placement would remain intact. But hanging them from the mouth would just be absolute, next level insanity. So that’s where they ended up!

[imadeandfoundthisstuff]

Throne for Snow White

First off, I didn’t paint this. I basecoated it yellow, but the snazzy gold was done by the scenic artist at the theater where I was working at the time. And he did a great job! With that out of the way, now I can tell you all about how I built it. When I was a kid, my mom used to point at shapes and ask me “What could this be, what could that be?” I do the same thing all the time now when creating props. I love repurposing what’s already around, so when I was tasked with making a throne, I just wandered around the workshop looking for stuff that seemed throne-y based on the reference photo I was given.

This chair looked good, I liked the ornate carving of the spindles.

Then I found this window frame nobody wanted and attached that. Gettin’ thronier.

I had noticed these random things lounging in a corner months earlier, I knew their time to shine would arrive eventually, and throne day was that time.

I also found some regal looking decorations and threw those on there after I had Frankensteined everything else together. Once it got a killer paint job (again, not by me) I added the luxurious arm rests and the back and seat cushions.

Often when I build stuff, I have a little backstory going in my head about who it’s for. For this, I imagined I was making a throne for the king dragging around the folding chair from the “Enjoy the Silence” video.

“Here’s a better seat for ya, buddy!”

[imadeandfoundthisstuff]

Time Clock for Kinky Boots

I used to be so literal minded when I began doing prop work. If I was told I needed to find a time clock, I would have started scouring Ebay or Craigslist. But no more. Now I love seeing how little I can buy, how I can make something materialize out of nothing. Most of the time, things don’t need to be a real thing anyway, they just need to approximate a real thing. So now I go on my phone and get a picture, I show that picture to whoever, ask them “This?” then they either say “Yes, that!” or “No, a different thing!” and if they say the latter then I show them more pictures until they conclusively say “Yes, that!” and once I have my “Yes, that!”, then I get to work.

This is the picture of a time clock that I got “Yes, that!” to. It didn’t need to actually do anything, so I just built a shell out of MDF, and cut out a hole for the clock part, framing that with a frame that I pulled from a thermostat control that wasn’t being used.

This was one prop that I’m happy to say I did paint myself, and surprisingly it actually came out looking okay! I found the ugliest industrial green we had in stock to match the ugly industrial green on the reference photo, then sponged on some rust. Since the closest audience member would only be seeing it from, like, a block away essentially, I just printed off the “clock” on regular old computer paper and taped that in there.

And to think there was a time when I would have bought something like this! Here’s one on Ebay right now for over a hundred bucks-

No thanks, I’ll stick to my bargain-basement DIY version. 

[imadeandfoundthisstuff]

Spell Book for Snow White

I don't practice Santeria, I ain't got no crystal ball, but I needed to make a book of spells for Snow White and since I'm not a particularly gifted painter I knew the “design” on the cover would have to be three-dimensional. So I went around the shop picking out creepy, witchy things- a nice little skull, bones, off-putting grass, etc. Then I applied a fresh coat of paint to a book that another designer had previously put a spooky, wrinkly cover on. After that dried I hot glued and zip tied all those occultish accoutrements down.

The pièce de résistance was the bug on a stick bookmark.

When I was gluing him on there I couldn’t stop thinking about this guy-

“Hi, how are ya?” 

[imadeandfoundthisstuff]

Ships for Peter and the Starcatcher

These are some ships that I built for a production of Peter and the Starcatcher. My friend Inge Storey did all the detail painting, hence why they look so dope.

*Spray paint cans for scale. The Wasp was supposed to be the good guys’ nice ship, so I painted that one a royal blue and gave it some sporty, shiny gold curtains and Inge tagged it with some sweet insects...

and these British name banners...

 and these gold designs.... 

She just free-handed all of that on both sides with paint markers in like 20 minutes while we talked about other stuff, amazing!  

The Neverland was supposed to be the shittier of the two boats, so I painted that one an ugly yellow and put some beat up looking black curtains on it that I cut out of scraps of duvetyne.

We thought it would be funny if there was actually a drawing of the actor playing Bill Slank on the boat that’s supposed to be his, so Inge tagged the Neverland with that, as well as an image of Slank’s signature whip.

There’s a part in the play where the Neverland is supposed to split in two, so I had to build a second “stunt” ship for that. 

I just needed to add a tiny bit of velcro since the splitting ship was only on stage for a moment before an actor pulled it apart. 

Instead of trying to recreate the graphics on the first boat, we decided it would be funnier to just have Inge write “OH NOOO!!!” on it and to have one of the O’s be Slank’s mouth, so that’s what she did-

[imadeandfoundthisstuff]

Oil Lamps for The Heiress

hi can i get a uhhh........oil lamp? These are some fake oil lamps that I made for a production of The Heiress.

I searched around online for battery powered oil lamps but all the results were too pricey. And I didn’t feel like trying to wire anything up myself since these had to be super reliable, so I went to Walmart and bought 2 Coleman lanterns.

I removed the housing over the light bulbs and then used JB Weld to attach some hurricane glass chimneys that I got at a thrift store to the bases of the Coleman lamps.  

These were supposed to be fancy lamps, so I found some strands of beads at a craft store and used some more JB Weld to attach those as decorative molding.   

Next, I spray painted the bases of the lamps with hammered finish spray paint.

The last step was gelling them with yellow gels to cover the bluish-hued light of the stock bulbs that came in the lantern bases.

I just took one of these out the other day and it turned right on, four years later! The other one shattered awhile back, very sad. Bröther I can not give you that lamp, I’m sorry.

[imadeandfoundthisstuff]

Wildebeests for The Lion King Jr.

These are some wildebeests that I made for a production of The Lion King Jr. My friends Inge Storey and Stephanie Samuel did the sweet tribal zig-zags and dots on these. They free handed all those, and they look amazing! Other parent volunteers helped a bunch with various other stages of priming and basecoating. Thanks everyone!  

The scene these were going to be used for was a recreation of the stampede, which meant that a bunch of kids would be hustling all over the stage with them, so they had to be extra durable and lightweight. My mind immediately went to the Nerf shields that I remembered boys in my neighborhood having when I was growing up. However, in a bizarre Mandela effect, it turns out Nerf didn’t market a shield until like 2009, so who knows what the hell I was thinking of. Maybe laser tag shields? Whatever, in any case I would be building these as if they were going to be used and cared for as toys and not fancy stage props.

This was the very first project where I learned about people using Pep Boys floor mats as cosplay foam- it all started when I found this awesome tutorial on YouTube one day. I went out and bought some foam mats myself, unfortunately I bought the kind that are one big roll, which took about a week to lose their curliness, so they had to sit under stacks of books and whatever else I could find to weigh them down while they flattened out. I recommend using the kind that come in flat packs of six- you have to fill in the gaps, but that takes less time than waiting on the roll to squish out. Using a heat gun can help speed things along, but again, it’s just easier to use the flat ones.

Once my mats were uncurled enough to start working with, I used the shape of the Broadway wildebeests as a loose template to cut out my own shields. As far a frame/backing, I knew PVC piping was where it was at since it’s basically indestructible. I took one of the foam pieces I had cut out to Home Depot and sat there in their plumbing aisle laying out all the elbows and junctions I would need to assemble a frame. They even had these great rounded pieces that made perfect handles. 

To attach the PVC frames to the foam I used high temp hot glue. These things are three years old in this picture and they still haven’t come apart. I made sure to glue them together before painting anything so that the glue could bond to the surfaces themselves and not just to paint. After experimenting with the whole back being a flat black, they eventually got painted the same reddish brown as parts of the front. As you can see, after three years some of the paint has worn off. The bottoms still look pretty good though-

When it came time to paint the fronts, I knew I’d have to use stencils to make all 16 of these as uniform looking as possible. I used the Broadway ones as an example but was also inspired by 80’s art icon Patrick Nagel and his bold, simple strokes that created distinctive eyes and brows.

You can still rent these from the theater where I made them, they’d be epic in a Nerf war! 

[imadeandfoundthisstuff]

Miss Gulch’s Bike for The Wizard of Oz

This is a 1977 Schwinn Breeze that I found to be Miss Gulch’s bike for The Wizard of Oz. 

I personally thought it would be sick if Miss Gulch rode a BMX with mag wheels, but the director wanted something more period. I knew the bike had to be black for the show, and that painting it wouldn’t be difficult, so that meant I just needed to find a women’s bike with the kind of frame shape that could pass as being loosely 1939-ish.

I found this beauty on Craigslist for a reasonable price. An elderly man was selling it- he had bought it brand new for his wife to ride, but she was having general mobility issues, so they were letting it go. It broke my heart to paint it, as it was in absolute showroom condition when I got it. It looked exactly like the bike in these catalog pictures- 

The original sales receipt was in a basket just like this-

-both of which were lost in the general mayhem of getting the show opened. But the clock was ticking and having this done meant I could move on to other projects.

[imadeandfoundthisstuff]

Zazu Puppet for The Lion King Jr.

This a Zazu puppet that I found and then modified for a production of The Lion King Jr.

At first I tried making a puppet from scratch, but the results were horrifying. Then I found this company Axtell Expressions that makes great looking stuff, but unfortunately I couldn’t afford any of their professional grade puppets. However, I could afford one of their “starter puppets”, specifically their Youcan Toucan.

Of course, Zazu is not a Toucan, so I had to change the color of his beak from green to blue and orange to try and match the iconic animated version of him.

First, I primed every surface on him that I would be painting with white fabric paint, and then once that was dry I went over that with blue and orange.

Good god, I can’t believe I managed to get a handle of rum, Martha Stewart Textile Medium, and a growler in the same shot as Zazu! I was painting him in my dining room and I grabbed the heaviest things off the bar to weigh down the trash bags I laid out underneath him, hence the appearance of the dolphin-shaped bottle opener as well.  

Next he needed longer wings/arms for his performer to articulate, so I grabbed some feather boas from Walmart and cut those to appropriate lengths and then attached them to control rods.

The director of the show added the little ruffled bib/apron thing all by himself, I love it!

[imadeandfoundthisstuff]

Giraffes for The Lion King Jr.

These are some giraffe heads and legs that I made for a production of The Lion King Jr. My friend Mathew Samuel did all the painting work. 

As I talked about previously, I’m no stranger to uncomfortable, ergonomically-challenged costumes, so I wanted these giraffe get-ups to be as pleasant to wear as possible.

I’m not sure how or why I got the idea to use bike helmets as bases for the heads, maybe I was thinking of Phillip the Hyper-Hypo, I dunno. I knew that if the heads were going to be at all heavy that they would need to have a chin strap type of deal to keep them on these kids as they walked around, and bike helmets seemed like a good idea since they’re reasonably comfortable and are made to be worn for long periods of time.

I was able to score two helmets for free from a lady who owned a bike shop- apparently, helmets “expire”- not like milk, they don’t start to smell bad or anything, but she couldn’t legally sell these particular ones anymore because they were outdated.

Once I had those, the hardest part came next, which was figuring out how much height and weight I could add to these things before the kids wearing them would start to wobble off balance, or begin complaining of neck pain. I tried A LOT of different configurations and in the end I landed on sturdy, not very long necks, and large, basically weightless faces.

For the necks, I used sections of those fiberglass driveway marker poles, figuring those were light and basically indestructible and then around that I slid carved sections of pool noodles to beef them out. For the faces, I cut the thinnest upholstery fabric possible into the shapes I needed, and then wrapped yellow fabric around that and around the neck and helmet.

Next came the legs. I’d want these to be comfortable as well, so I began by looking at forearm crutches.

I then built what were essentially forearm crutches out of PVC pipe- they wouldn’t need to be load-bearing, the kids wouldn’t have to lean on them, so plastic piping would be plenty strong.

For the hooves I used sections of pool noodles and then wrapped them in duct tape so that they would be durable and so I could hot glue the yellow fabric to them without having them melt. 

“The hoof!”

I cut lengths of foam insulation into sleeves and mounted those just above the handgrips for the kids to stick their forearms through. These would keep the legs attached to the kids’ arms without the need for adjustable straps or anything like that. 

These got rented out along with a bunch of other props to a school who I guess cast larger kids as the giraffes, so they came back with the sleeves slit down the middle. 

Whatever, they paid a fortune to rent everything so I didn’t complain- now they can fit my giant arms too! 

[imadeandfoundthisstuff]

Spears for Peter and the Starcatcher

These are some other spears that I made for a production of Peter and the Starcatcher.

In the show, this one group of characters are supposed to live on “Pasta Island” or something, so their weaponry had to be culinary themed. I went to Dollar Tree and grabbed a bunch of plastic serving spoons and spatulas and stuff, nothing that could even remotely take anyone’s eye out. 

I spray painted those all silver and then attached them to sections of PVC pipe by drilling tiny holes in both the PVC pipe and the utensils and then running zip-ties through the holes to secure them together.

Once the utensils were on there good and tight I added some leafy greens as well on either end of the spears, you know, to keep things healthy. Done!

[imadeandfoundthisstuff]

Spears for Hair

These are some spears that I made for a production of Hair.

They’re pretty basic- all I did was buy some PVC pipes, sand them, then spray paint them brown and seal them. For the heads, I cut some of my beloved Pep Boys foam floor mats into triangular diamond kinda shapes and then hot glued them to the ends of the PVC pipes, forming sandwiches.

I clamped the sections of foam together while the glue cured, resulting in these indentations along the edges, but I don’t mind them- I think they look decorative or something. 

Once they were all assembled, my friend Mathew Samuel who also painted my wooden animals did some detail work with acrylic markers. 

Mathew was nice enough to paint both sides, so the actors wouldn’t have to worry about holding them a certain way in front of the audience. 

What an easy project, let the sun shine in! 

[imadeandfoundthisstuff]

Schwinn for Picnic

This is a Schwinn bike that I found for a production of the play Picnic. I needed to find something that looked like a 50’s paperboy could be cruising around on it, and I didn’t have a lot of money to spend. I wasn’t having much luck, but then by some insane miracle I woke up at like 7AM on a Saturday morning and upon willing my eyes to open I proceeded to immediately grab my phone and check the Craigslist “Free Stuff” section. And just a few listings down from the top, there it was!

I called the phone number on the ad right away, and not only did the person answer, and not only did they seem entirely lucid, but the bike was still available, AND they agreed to hold it for me! The only sad part, the woman on the phone informed me, was that not waking up about an hour earlier meant that I missed out on a free adult size tricycle, which they also had, which was already gone. To this day I’m kicking myself over that. Still, after assuring the nice lady that I was very much on my way that morning, I sped into the countryside blissed out of my mind, all “You can ram that NEA grant, I just scored a Pee-Wee Herman-ish bike for nothing!”

The home where it was located was absolutely beautiful, and new. It looked just like that house on The Sopranos where Paulie Walnuts did those yard donuts.

As I got out of my car, a man was already walking down the driveway with the bicycle towards me. I suppose he was cordial enough in the hand-off, but you could tell he desperately wanted the bike, me, and my car all to disappear forever as quickly as possible. Which I understand- I’ve never sold drugs, or my body, but I imagine peddling either of those things would put me in a similar mindset to the one I’ve come to enter when doin’ Craigslist deals, even freebies. Because, sadly, people are nuts, okay? Which means you have to be like Nomi Malone with that switchblade in that truck…

...keeping your guard up at all times, lest you get swindled, or dragged into a weird conversation where you could play a drinking game based on the amount of casually anti-semitic remarks someone makes about the hatchback they’re trying to sell you. Been there, do not wanna revisit. So I was happy just to load the Schwinn into the car and be gone. Once I got it back to the theater and cleaned it up I was even more jazzed- the tires, the paint, everything was in super shape! It even has these neat grip shifters-

I’m amazed the owners didn’t even try to clean it up and sell it. But based on the house they had, and the expensive trucks and Jeeps in their driveway, them giving me a free bike was the equivalent of me not aggressively scraping the walls of a jar of mustard before lobbing it into the trash. First World! In any case, I was just so happy to find the Schwinn and give it a new life onstage.   

[imadeandfoundthisstuff]

Legs of Lamb for The Cripple of Inishmaan

These are some large legs of lamb that I made for a production of the play The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh. They had to be big enough to be visible when an actor carried them onstage under each arm, so they ended up being about 16” to 17” long.

For inspiration, I looked at pictures on Google of those giant turkey legs that they sell at Renaissance Faires. And I of course revisited this scene from Serial Mom...

For the meaty parts, I used an electric kitchen knife to carve large sections of upholstery foam into generally chunk of lamb meat-like shapes. Then I found some plastic bones (I think they were human femurs, but don’t quote me on that) and then I cut slits in the foam lamb chunks and shoved the bones in there, using low-temp hot glue to keep them in place. High-temp hot glue can melt upholstery foam and cheap plastics, resulting in awful fumes and napalm-like crap on your fingers.

Once that was all together, since the play is set in rural Ireland in the 30’s I covered the meat parts in burlap to make them “to-go” style.

I’m pretty sure Cover Your Meat Parts in Burlap is actually the title of another Martin McDonagh play about back-in-the-day Ireland. 

[imadeandfoundthisstuff]

Remote Control for The Wizard of Oz

This is a remote control that I made for The Wizard of Oz. It was for the scene when Dorothy and everyone realize that the “Wizard” is just some rando behind a giant animatronic head that he controls with a remote. Buzzkill. 

I found an old portable radio at an electronics recycling center, as well as some antennas and knobs and just bolted and JB-Weld’d everything all together. Then I gave it a quick spray painting with metallic silver, followed by a clear sealant.  

This was a prop that appeared on stage in the shadows for like twenty seconds, so it didn’t need to be the freakin’ Mona Lisa or nothin’. But, it served its little purpose admirably.

[imadeandfoundthisstuff]

Balinese Umbrella for Hair

This is a Balinese umbrella that I made for a production of Hair. It’s huge- over 50” in diameter! I didn’t really understand what I was supposed to be building at first, and it kept being described to me as “a jellyfish”. But finally we found some reference pictures on Google and from there things moved ahead pretty well.

My first step was to find an existing umbrella, then skin it, and then reinforce it with a TON of wooden dowels, hot glue, and duct tape.

I knew all the decorative fabric and stuff would be adding a lot of extra weight, and I wanted the frame of the umbrella to be able to handle that and the abuse it would take getting used onstage.

Once the frame was reinforced I covered it with a gold fabric that we had in stock, and then added some maroon scallop-shaped accents to the top and an upside down basket as a decorative cap. I dug through our soft-goods area and found these beautiful faux-silk valances that were the perfect thing to trim the outside edge of the umbrella with, so I glued those on as well.

Ohhhhh!!!! I see what they meant now!